Product Description
"A tantalizing mix of moral fable and sensuous colorful narrative, exploring female sexuality and racial solidarity." -- Women's Studies International Forum

"Quicksand and Passing are novels I will never forget. They open up a whole world of experience and struggle that seemed to me, when I first read them years ago, absolutely absorbing, fascinating, and indispensable." -- Alice Walker

"This series is an ambitious, exciting, and highly valuable contribution to the reclamation of American women's lost literature." -- Joyce Carol Oates

Nella Larsen was an important writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance. While she was not prolific her work was powerful and critically acclaimed. Collected here are both of her novels, Passing and Quicksand. Quicksand, was autobiographical in nature and examined a woman's need for sexual fulfilment balanced against respectability and acceptance amid a deeply religious society. The novel is deeply pessimistic and ends as the protagonist is sucked into a life that is at odds with all that she had desired. Passing confronts the reality of racial passing. The novel focuses on two childhood friends Clare and Irene, both of whom are light skinned enough to pass as white, who have reconnected with one another after many years apart. Clare has chosen to pass while Irene has embraced her racial heritage and become an important member of her community. The Novel examines how people pass on many different levels and in many different ways. Some forms of passing are perfectly acceptable while others can lead to disaster. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

good seller
I received the book quickly and it was in the condition the seller described it as.Thank you.

A prescription
Being already mesmerized by the great Toni Morrison, I was quite surprised to literally "fall" on this book (found in a box of free books).
I'd say that Morrison is a pre-Larsen, but then, I may be finding out that these black ladies who write - so well - are very preocuppied with their race. Obviously, it's allright with me as it is exactly that fact that interests me very much. I learn in novels because it is part-reality, part-fiction.
(Please don't blame a white French-Canadian man for that.Curiosity doesn't kill this cat)
I began with Passing, as the story appealed to me. And I simply loved it. Never knew that passing existed (innocent me again) and this makes a large subject to cover. This, Larsen does delicately. And with great impact.
Next, Quicksand. I read it with much attention but got a bit lost towards the end. Something about a lack of proper closure for this novel made me feel like the author lost some interest in it or didn't know herself how to complete it. But, she does make her point clear.
(all that already pointed out in the intro, that should have been put at the end of the book, not at the beginning. Read it last too...).
A search on the net made me find out that Larsen is being studied in many different schools in America. This kind of prescribed reading may disgust some people (like us here who all had to read The Tin Flute, by Gabrielle Roy) but bear in mind that teachers makes us read the real stuff. I invite you too go for it, especially Passing, that is really a great novel... with much to make us think about.

Amazing Narrative and Multi-Faceted Topics
Passing is an amazing narrative. A key to the success of the narrative in Nella Larsen's Passing is the use of a limited third-person narrator, because it allows the villain to hide. Through the voice of Irene Redfield, characterizations get meted out as she sees fit, and only by Irene's portraits of others can we arrive at her own characteristics and motivations. As Irene describes and interacts with others, she unwittingly betrays her shrewd plans. Whether done subconsciously or not, her subtle actions and inactions tattle on her, yet she keeps the narrative vague enough that she comes off as a victim of Clare. Irene paints herself as a sheep and Clare as a wolf, when in fact the opposite is true. The affair that presumably takes place between Clare and Brian seems to catch Irene off-guard.

Keep an eye on Irene.

Amazing narrative on several levels. The crossing of domains in this novella is outstanding. Because Irene has control of the narrative, the childhood events and characterizations indict Clare as untrustworthy instead of as a misfortunate child who overcomes great obstacles. This distrust raises questions later on when Clare all but moves into Irene's house, and Irene doesn't protest for an "obscure reason."

2 nicely paired novellas
Quicksand is one of my favorite fictional stories. In truth, the word "fiction" can not adequately touch upon the essence of this novel. Helga Green's biographical information is nearly identical to that of Nella Larson, and in Helga we, the readers, see a reflection of Ms. Larsen.

Helga is a heroine, tragic not because of her fate, but of her resignation to her fate and inability to rise above it. Larsen realizes the bonds of racism and sexism that held steadfastedly in place, whether it's in Harlem or Copenhagen. A reader may either sympathesize with Helga's plight or sneer at her stupidity. But perhaps that's what Larson wants to portray. Sometimes one is irrational when it comes to the matters of the heart or the lack of. Even the most intelligent of us. We would gasp in surprise if the same fate fell upon others but would seem resigned when we are in the same situation.

Passing is considered by many critics as Larsen's "lesser novella." True, it is not as riveting as Quicksand, but it explores deeper issues of gender and the color barrier. While in Quicksand the relationship between Helga and Anne is at best lightly touched upon, the one between Clare and Irene is more complex and poignant.

Throughout the novel(la), there is a tinge of homoeroticism, if you read between the lines. This is a story, not so much of the tragic mulatta (even though tragedy tends to overshadow all else in Larsen's work), nor merely of the phenomenon of passing for white, but of two women's exploration of their own gender, sexual, and racial roles in the tumulous society of upper middle-class Harlem.

Both stories written in the early 1930s period, this book features Larsen at her best. Even though the endings to both are quite anti-climatic, one should find in her stories enough food for thought and a quite thorough insight into female African American conflicts and culture during the Renaissance era.

Only read Quicksand--wonderful book
I read this book years ago, in college.It made me much more sympathetic to the struggles of biracial (black and white) women, of the past and today -- I am an Asian-American female.The book is a beautifully written, but painful story of how the protagonist moves through her life in societies where she is kept down on many levels (socially, economically, psychologically, physically) -- basically her journey through the "quicksand" of classism, racism, and sexism.The book deserves a wide audience. ... Read more